Carts

The Virginia Division of Consumer Affairs (DCA) warns consumers that falls from shopping carts are among the leading causes of head injuries to young children treated in hospital emergency rooms. Estimates by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) show that in 1988 there were 12,000 hospital emergency room-treated head injuries to children under 5 years of age. These injuries were usually due to falls from shopping carts. About one-third of these head injuries were concussions, fractures, or internal injuries.

MATHEWS - The 600 people who live on Gwynn's Island in Mathews County are divided roughly down the middle in a dispute over golf carts. Virginia law prohibits the use of golf carts on state-maintained roadways unless permitted through a special provision by the locality. About half of the residents on Gwynn's Island would like to see approximately 10 of the island's 13 miles of roadway designated for use by golf carts, and have signed a petition supporting the proposal. The other half of the island's residents have signed a petition opposing it. On Tuesday, proponents of the move to make the roads "golf cart friendly" asked the Board of Supervisors to request a feasibility study from the Virginia Department of Transportation.

If we are really going to be serious about fighting the scourge of drugs, about removing this vile temptation to which - let us be honest - any one of us could succumb, at awful peril to the welfare of ourselves and our loved ones, you know, deep down, what we have to do. We have to do something about restaurant dessert carts. I am not talking about your good old-fashioned pie a la mode here, folks, or your lime sorbets. Or even strawberrry mousses, which are suspiciously hoity-toity but still basically innocuous.

A pert red and white food cart that looks like a tiny house has been popping up around town, and its operators are offering new alternatives for a quick meal. Mickey and Lucy Joyner opened Lucy's Smokin' BBQ about a month ago, and are serving meals from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day except Sunday. They are located in a parking lot at 202 W. Mercury Blvd. Monday through Friday, and for the fall on Saturdays at Gosnold's Hope Park for youth football. "We enjoy doing this," Lucy said.

Samaritans are showing off their new shirts as they prepare for their biggest fundraiser of 2008. The Piankatank River Golf Club in Hartfield will be the site of the Samaritans Golf Tournament on May 24. Proceeds will benefit the J.D. Briggs Children's Fund, which the Samaritans administer. The cost to enter the tournament is $60 per person or $240 per team. Lunch and carts are included in the fee. Apllications are available by contacting J.D. Briggs, 642-5093 or Box 147 Bena, VA 23018.

The brown lids on the dark green garbage containers to be used by the city's senior citizens will be a dead giveaway - for burglars. That's the assertion of a Newport News police officer who lives in Poquoson with her elderly father. Dinah Balthis, an investigator with the special victims unit, told the City Council last Monday night that the new garbage program that goes into effect this week may be flawed. The carts with the brown lids that will be sitting curbside for garbage pickup puts senior citizens "at an unreasonable risk of being victimized by anyone who is looking to commit a crime of opportunity and an easy target that can't put up much a fight," Balthis said.

One more road will lead to ice cream starting this week, when a new Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shop opens on another of Williamsburg's busiest approaches. The store is scheduled to open Thursday in the former Rocky's Gourmet Ice Cream and Sweet Shop on Route 60 east of the historic area, said co-owner Frank Salzman. It will be the Peninsula's second Ben & Jerry's shop, and just across town from the first, which has operated on another leg of Route 60 - Richmond Road - for more than six years.

KIDDIE CART CAPER As anti-theft devices go, it wasn't exactly "The Club." Employees of the Super Kmart in York have been testing their ingenuity, trying to keep people from stealing the store's pint-sized shopping carts for kids. In November, nearly 60 were swiped in the store's first two weeks. Since then, another 200 have been spirited away. "It's like anything else," says the store's manager, Alex Llorente. "Where there's a will, there's a way." Not that the store hasn't tried blocking that way. For one thing, Llorente says, the store began attaching "bicycle flags" to the carts.

Edgar J. Opie remembers the years before his retirement when he proclaimed that once he retired, he would not sign another timecard. However, after having served 38 years in the civil service, he was not accustomed to having so much leisure time. OK, he was bored. Two years after retiring as a Yorktown Naval Weapons Station employee in 1982, he went back to work. "I said I wasn't going to work anymore, but I just got bored," he says. Opie has been a bagger at the Heritage Square Farm Fresh in Grafton for five years.

Daniel Landis, a seventh-grade teacher at Dozier Middle School, says teaching young people is much more satisfying than holding an administrative job. Landis should know. He was principal at Carver Elementary School, supervised elementary instruction for Newport News Public Schools, and later served as headmaster for Trinity Lutheran School, before deciding to go back to the classroom. "I like kids and you don't see kids much when a principal," says the Joplin, Mo., native.

POQUOSON — Poquoson resident Paul Michael Jr. enjoys using his golf cart to traverse the Rens Road area of the city. He likes the ease with which he can chat with his neighbors while riding in his cart and the convenience of using it to zip over to Whitehouse Cove to grab a bite at Surf Rider Restaurant. "It's certainly easier to hop in the golf cart and get down the road," Michael said. It's been about six months since a new ordinance allowing golf carts to operate on city streets with a speed limit of 25 mph went into effect.

GLOUCESTER — A jury in Gloucester County last week awarded $5 million to a woman who suffered a severe brain injury after being struck by an employee's stocking cart while shopping at a Food Lion nearly seven years ago. The verdict against the grocery store company, reached Thursday following a three-day trial, ties the largest verdict ever recorded in Gloucester, said Christopher Guedri, with the Richmond firm of Allen & Allen and the attorney who...

Fundraising is underway for the U.S. Coast Guard's planned trip crossing the country in an electric golf cart in the spring of 2013. The drive's purpose is to solicit the public's support and raise awareness to help support the injured service members of the Wounded Warrior Project, according to organizers. The trip will cover more than 3,900 miles across 11 states, starting at the Coast Guard training base in Petaluma, Calif., and ending at the Yorktown training base. The crew plans to drive 200 miles each day, stopping at Coast Guard installations, VFWs and other military areas along the way. To make a contribution or see the entire route for the trip, visit cartingforacause.org.

Poquoson City Council last week asked city staff to hold off on erecting golf cart signs on small dead-end streets until they could review the need for signs in a work session. City staff is erecting the signs as part of the city's new golf cart ordinance which goes into effect Dec. 1. The ordinance allows city residents to drive golf carts on city streets with a maximum speed limit of 25 mph. Council made the request regarding the signs after city resident James Bostic complained about having a sign put in his yard.

The city of Poquoson's new golf cart ordinance will become effective Dec. 1 and city officials have released details on the regulations. Prior to driving golf carts on approved city streets, residents must first contact the Poquoson Police Department at 868-3367 in order to obtain an annual golf cart decal. When the application is submitted, the police department will provide applicable operation regulations, a yearly safety inspection form and a liability insurance form. After applicants have completed all the forms and requirements, and paid the mandatory $10 fee, the police department will issue the annual golf cart license and required golf cart decal.

Daniel Landers, a seventh-grade teacher at Dozier Middle School, says teaching young people is much more satisfying than holding an administrative job. Landers should know. He was principal at Carver Elementary School, supervised elementary instruction for Newport News Public Schools, and later served as headmaster for Trinity Lutheran School, before deciding to go back to the classroom. "I like kids and you don't see kids much when a principal," says the Joplin, Mo., native.

THANKS DEER RUN A special thanks to Deer Run Golf Course pro Greg Overton, course superintendent Gene Milota and all of the employees of Deer Run. The Deer Run Women's Golf Association Nine-Hole Group held their spring tournament on June 8 and 9, and the pro shop staff and course employees truly made this a happy occasion. The tees were marked with lovely pots of flowers. The employees removed the players clubs from the trunks of their automobiles and placed them on the carts designated by the tournament director.